A Man Has Reported To Police He Was Raped By Another Patient On A North Manchester Psychiatric Ward

Recent news reports have alleged a male rape took place at Park House on or around the 30 Th November 2016. The reports require urgently to be fully investigated by the appropriate authorities.

The person who maintains the attack took place whilst he was an inpatient at Park House which is situated in the grounds of North Manchester General Hospital, has reported details of the alleged unpleasant incident to police.

The man was so upset at the lack of assistance and understanding from both the Manchester Mental Health & Social Care Trust and Greater Manchester Police that he contacted the Manchester Evening News to help bring the alleged incident to the public’s attention.

The man also maintains that his alleged attacker was also allowed to approach him following the incident.

The man went on to attempt suicide while at Park House a number of times before appealing his section, claiming he didn’t feel safe in North of Manchester Trust facility. He further states that staff failed to protect him whilst he was under their care.

Speaking about the alleged attack to the Manchester Evening News (MEN), he said: “I froze, I couldn’t get my head around what was happening. He said he couldn’t bring himself to say what had happened to a nurse.

He told the MEN: “They said they were keeping me in a place of safety, yet I was raped. I couldn’t live with myself if this happened to anyone else. That’s why I’ve come forward to tell people what happened to me and how it was dealt with.

“I tried to kill myself twice after it happened on the ward and the day I was discharged, I told them I intended to kill myself.

“I’ve now been given another mental health assessment and haven’t been sectioned, so I’m fit to give the police a statement. I don’t understand why nothing is being done.

Manchester Users Network has also received reports from patients who no longer feel that they are safe whilst on the Manchester wards. In the past, a female patient was allowed to become pregnant by another very poorly inpatient.

Past reports of other inpatients also being seriously physically attacked by other inpatients whilst being treated in the care of the former Manchester Mental Health Trust have been established to be true by Manchester Users Network. Yet former CEO’s and board directors did nothing to improve the lack of security for their inpatients at the former ailing Manchester Mental Health & Social Care Trust. Many of the Trust boards former members have gone on to be rewarded by being given even bigger paid jobs as directors within the NHS.

Complaints from staff and patients about mental health provision in the city, which has among the highest demand in the country have been made for many years.

Manchester Users Network will be demanding better services and greater protection for patients from the newly formed Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust when MUN meets with the GMMH_NHS Foundation Chief Executive Bev Humphrey, at the end of January.

Our Aims: About Us

To support users and ex-users of psychiatric services in the Manchester area. The organisation provides a forum for services users to have a bona fide say in planning and provision of mental health services.

Protesters in King’s Lynn fight against mental health service cuts

Protesters took to the streets of King’s Lynn to voice their anger at what they described as “continuous” cutbacks to mental health services in west Norfolk.

Mental health cuts protest

A protest march against cuts to mental health services and the Fermoy Unit at the QEH took place in King's Lynn town centre. Picture: Matthew Usher.

More than 100 campaigners marched from The Walks through the town centre before finishing outside the Majestic Cinema.

Peter Smith, former parliamentary candidate for south-west Norfolk said: “We are in the fight of our lives here.”

The protest was triggered by the Fermoy Unit, an in-patient NHS facility in Lynn for mental health, which campaigners say faces an uncertain future. The unit was briefly closed to new admissions earlier this month, but reopened last week, albeit with fewer beds.

Mr Smith said: “In my lifetime we have never had to fight like this, but what is the alternative?”

But Debbie White, director of operations for Norfolk at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said there were now no plans to axe the Fermoy Unit.

She added: “It is right that mental health services should be valued and funded on the same level as acute health services, and it is understandable people feel passionate about the Fermoy Unit remaining open.”

Labour party activist Jo Rust insisted the issue would not disappear. She said: “They have been talking about closing it for a long time. We will fight and we will not let them do that.”

Beth Anthony, 18 of Dersingham, said: “We are here to protest against the continuous cuts to the mental health service, we think it’s unacceptable. My younger brother suffers from poor mental health and has to travel to London... That is to the detriment of my family because we have to pay for him to go down by train every single month.”